I've read through much of the threads on headlights and have been most impressed by the experimentation many of you folks have done. I have a 2001 with factory HIDs. While the projector HIDs on my previous vehicle, a 98 Audi A6Q, were IMO far superior, I am satisfied with the low beam HID OEMs for now. What I would like to do is find a halogen or quasi/pseudo HID for my High Beams that will throw as much light as possible regardless of DOT/EUR endorsement. I live in the hills of NW CT where, when I need high beams, I need them bright. I figure they may as well be as bright as possible since I quickly shut them down for on-coming or when behind another vehicle. Color matching is unimportant to me; lumens are.

Suggestions please keep to "plug and play". i.e. no mods except for changing the bulb and fuse, keeping in mind the limitations of the wiring harness.

The same goes for the fogs. I'd like as many lumens as possible with the same parameters in mind. BTW I've already changed my backups to blue 7440 Ultrawhite PIAAs, better, not great and look good in the white housing.

Suggestions?

 

hey mlevinedc

i'm waiting on my HID kit to arrive since thats the only bulb that i'll will be havign super bright, i too needed brighter lights for my highs and foggies. So what i did is ordered 2 sets of PIAA SUPER PLASMAs direct from this guy on Ebay. They go for around 120 at local shops around here in my area, so i think its pretty cheap to get it from him on ebay. Its about 85 on ebay.

I dont know about the quality of the light yet, but it should be pretty damn bright... when i get it in i will have pics up, hopefully it arrives this week.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eb...472710&r=0&t=0

that is the link... if you want you can purchase directy from him and just mention you were refered by Spinteews, hopefully he will give you a discount?? hehe he gave me a small deal but whatever anything helps right ? LoL

 

When they do come in, post pictures, I really want to see what these look like.

 

If you want to use your fog lights only for their actual intended purpose "brighter" will actually have an adverse effect. What you first need to do is find a way to re-wire your fogs so the LBs aer not on at the same time. And if your fogs are not already of amber or yellow tint then doing that will also help.

Now, if your intention is to have brigher fogs only to get noticed, or to "enhance" the night time appearance of your vehicle, then I carry a small ball peen hammer around for when I NOTICE!

I notice that most european HIDs use the leveling motor to tilt the HIDs upward in high beam mode, maybe the Japanese will pick up on this feature soon?

I upgraded my 01 RX300 to the brightest HB bulbs I could find, took pictures through the windshield before and after and really couldn't see the difference.

Lumens vs spectra:

Most incandescent bulbs put out lots of lumens in the IR "zone", lumens of which you can make no use of at all, so you are interested in a wide sprectra but primarily in the human visible "zone", band.

Additionally, human "color" night vision is not as good as our daytime vision with the sun's wide spectra illumination so a wide spectrum light source is actually more desireable than you might think.

 

mlevinedc,

It all depends on how you use your high-beams. I don't think it's wise to change your high-beams to HIDs, although it's a very simple job.

First, HIDs take a little time to "burn" and "illuminate" before it's completely bright. The ballast ignites the power and converts your regular headlamp power into about 20,000 volts, although only using about 35 watts. So if you use your highbeams to "flash" other people or only for very short intervals, you can easily damage the ballasts, and cause more serious consequences. Just imagine some 20,000 volts of power goes on and off rapidly -- not a good idea.

If you want the most light from your car, first change your foglights into HID. Then if it's not enough, install another set of Real HID foglights in your bumper. There are several companies who manufacture nice aftermarket real HID foglights, like Raybrig, PIAA, Hella. I'm talking about true HID foglights, they are very very bright!

that's my 2 cents...

 

LoL dont forget get those are EXPENSIVE also Hendry... about 1g or so for those REAL HID fog lights by PIAA HELLA and RAYBRIGS...

I was thinkingi of getting those YELLOW ION PIAAS for my fogs but i think our stock fogs and regular headlamps are too close so it would look funny. The IS300 is perfect, nice with those HIDS and yellow foggies....

 

Hahaha... i know.. i know... but mlevinedc didn't mention about budget restrictions... :-)

Or what you can also do, instead of buying the real hid foglights like Hella/Raybrig/PIAA, buy a CATS foglight, install aftermarket HID to the housing. There is ONLY ONE model of CATS foglights that use 9006 bulb application. In this way, you can buy 9006 HID set, and install it to the CATS foglights...

:-)